Confused about maternity leave!

Just wondered if anyone could explain to me how it works! I'm aware of how pay etc works but my plan is to take 4 weeks A/L and then 2 weeks maternity before my due date, but I was wondering if baby came early would I loose my rights to my A/L, would I loose it all together, still be paid for it or would it be carried over to next year? Anyone know how it works? Xxx

It depends on your company to be honest, as I think it is up to you to make sure you take all your leave. I worked for the NHS, and we could only carry over one weeks leave into the next leave year if we hadn't used it - if maternity leave ran into the next leave year we were encouraged to take as much leave as possible before, or lose it. In those circumstances, if baby arrived early while still on annual leave, your maternity leave would start straight away and the annual leave would be lost if it could not be tagged on the end in the same leave year. A friend who works for a university though could carry all of hers over and add it on at the end of maternity leave - and if she'd not gone back to work she could've been paid for it. So if your employer does this you can cancel the leave and add it on at the end instead.

I'd contact your HR departments and check what your policy is - legally, you do accrue annual leave while on maternity leave, but it is up to you to take it, it's not up to the employer to make sure you do - unless you keep putting in requests and they turn them down.

Mat leave would start as soon as your baby arrives, it overrides any annual leave.as for what happens to your annual leave I'm not really sure as it's different for each company. Some will pay it, some will pay some and carry over some days, others will carry it over and some others will do none of the above and you can lose it. It would be best to check with your companies HR dept.